In Hollywood, Vin Diesel may not be the biggest name on the block, but when it comes to video games, the guy’s mug is all over the place. He may even unseat 50 Cent as the biggest real-life star in… Continue Reading →

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In Hollywood, Vin Diesel may not be the biggest name on the block, but when it comes to video games, the guy's mug is all over the place. He may even unseat 50 Cent as the biggest real-life star in gaming.
Diesel will be appearing in Starbreeze's upcoming title The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena. (Check out the demo for that game some time.) And he'll be starring in Midway's Wheelmanm which is coming out this month.
I had a chance to check out the game this week with Shaun Himmerick, the executive producer. He showed me some of the finer points a title that wants to give players that summer action thrill.
"A lot of parts of Wheelman were designed to feel like a movie and more specifically put the player in control of their own movie as if they were the person living out the action movie sequence," he said. "All the great action scenes, the Ronin, The Bourne Identitystuff, the Dieheard: With a Vengeance were all great inspiration for us."
And that's as plain as day as you start off your adventure as a wheelman in a bank heist in Barcelona, Spain. The game has a lot of open world elements to it. Players can drive wherever they want and the setting has all sorts of thoroughfares and alleys and office buildings to explore.
Wheelman only has two licensed vehicles, both from GM. One is the Opal Astra and the other is a Pontiac. The rest of the cars may be recognizable (like a Smart Car), but no brand names are used. There are dozens of vehicles though, including motorcycles and big-rigs, which all have their strengths and weaknesses.
But the vehicles aren't the focus of Wheelman. It's what players do with them that's important.
"Cars are weapons; they're tools," Himmerick said. "It's not the car that lets players finish a mission. It's the players skill."
And to that end, Midway Studios Newscastle modified the controls to make the chase missions more arcadelike. Instead of grinding a car to death and nudge it against a wall, the team created a system where players use the right thumb stuck to slam a car forward and sideways. Do it right and you'll see spectacular crashes with flames and drivers doing impersonations of crash test dummies.
Of course, driving like this works with certain cars better than others. A regular sedan works fine when you're slamming in a boulevard turnpike. It can get damaged a bit and the top speed and handling will suffer a little, but you can get still get by. Better yet, if you manage to jack a big-rig, they can pretty much do whatever they want on the roadway.
As for the motorcycle, it's best not to try to slam into a car with that. It's just best to lose your pursuers in traffic or back alleys.
But sometimes, you can drive just enough to see your car flaming. It's disintegrating before your eyes. What do you do then? Well, Midway Newcastle created something called an airjack. It's a button press that lets Vin Diesel's character get out of the car and jump onto another.
The whole transition is smooth as butter, and you can almost see it being necessary later in Wheelman. Players will likely have to daisy chain the move together, hopscotching between cars in a pursuit or chase.
"There's going to be missions in the game where the enemies attack you so relentlessly that there's no chance you will finish in the car you started the mission with," Himmerick said.
While driving, there's something called a Focus meter that builds as players weave in and out of traffic and race at top speed. That meter can be used to give players a boost to escape from baddies or they can do something much cooler and go into Aim Shot mode that acts almost like a Bullet Time.
As time slows for Vin Diesel's Burik, he can aim at other drivers, their tires or even their engines to make their vehicles explode. There's an even cooler version of this move called the Cyclone, where Burik spins the car around all John Woo-like and fires shots at the guys chasing him.
It's all very slick, very Hollywood. Newcastle gets that action movie feel across pretty well.
While 80 percent of the game will be centered on driving, 20 percent will be focused on tasks that require running and gunning. The game has a decent system for this. It's nowhere near as complex as the driving, but it's passable and works similar to Grand Theft Auto IV.
Burik will have a cover button and a soft lock on that will target an enemy but will still allow him to take head shots. He'll be able to pick up Uzis and other weapons, but unfortunately, Vin Diesel can't jump in this game. Apparently, he'd just look to weird doing it. After watching this video, I can see why.
Overall, there's going to be lots to do in Wheelman. Himmerick estimates that the game will last 25 to 30 hours with 105 side missions and 10 to 15 if players just focus on the main quest. The seven types of side missions range from anything like Fugitive where gangs chase you down while you try to deliver a package. There's another called Rampage where you get points for causing as much destruction as possible.
The side missions actually have a purpose other than being something to complete. Completing side missions give you bonuses such as more health or more damage that helps out in the main quest.
On top of that, the traffic and time of day changes for each mission. For example, some main story missions take place at noon with high traffic. That's the best time to do side missions like Rampage to get the high score. So there's some strategy involved when doing side quests.
Wheelman comes out in March 24 with a demo coming soon.]]>http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2009/03/04/vin-diesel-and-a-wheelman-preview/feed/0WHEE_X360_BXHST_RETAIL.jpgKaty Perry, Pretenders, Jimmy Eat World lead new on saleshttp://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2008/11/13/katy-perry-pretenders-jimmy-eat-world-lead-new-on-sales/
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2008/11/13/katy-perry-pretenders-jimmy-eat-world-lead-new-on-sales/#commentsFri, 14 Nov 2008 02:42:13 +0000Jim Harringtonhttp://www.ibabuzz.com/concerts/?p=1413